Nightingale Quarter Estates wants to create a new neighbourhood consisting of houses, apartments and extra-care accommodation plus a public park – the first to be built in the city centre for more than 100 years. Other proposed uses on the 18.5-acre site include commercial, leisure, retail and food and drink.

Outline plans, submitted in January, propose demolishing one of two "pepper-pot tower" facades still standing on the site to "support wider design, access and layout objectives".

Members opted to defer making a decision so that the plans could be "tweaked". The stumbling block centres around two 19th-century "pepper-pot" buildings. In its application, Nightingale Quarter Estates proposes bulldozing one to make way for an access road.

On Saturday morning, the petition had more than 3,000 supporters, with many people saying they wanted Derby’s heritage to be preserved.

Plans to demolish this facade with its two pepper-pot towers have sparked opposition

The two facades are all that remain of the former hospital, which was built in the early 1890s. Both are on Derby City Council 's own list of buildings considered to have "some local importance". However, they do not have statutory protection through listing at a national level.

Councillors said that, while they were in favour of the overall scheme, they wanted both “pepper-pot” buildings to be kept.

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The online petition states: "The two towers are all that remain of the former Hall & Young's Derbyshire Royal Hospital, a building that was built in the early 1890s and demolished in 2015.

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Should the 'pepper-pot' buildings be preserved?

500+ VOTES SO FAR

"With the site now cleared, a scheme has been proposed for a new 500-home neighbourhood that will retain one of the 'pepper pot' buildings and see the other demolished.

"Currently, the demolition decision has been deferred but public support is required to ensure that both of these iconic buildings are retained and incorporated into the proposed housing scheme.”

The plans showed this northern pepper-pot facade being incorporated into the scheme

One comment on the petition, from Simon Moore, says: "I believe this important Derby landmark should be retained as a piece of local history. I am a Derbeian and used to drive past the towers every time I went into town. It's part of my childhood. Please save the towers."

Another says: "My mum worked at the infirmary for 51 years, also lost my dad there and I was born there. It would break my mum’s heart to see these towers destroyed with so many memories."